Damage Range

Most attacks in the game do not deal simple fixed values but can deal damage over a range of values that comes from the base damage range. The formulas on this page can be applied to the average damage of the range to find an average result or it can be applied individually to both the minimum and maximum damage values to find the true range of the damage. The average damage is more meaningful when looking at your average DPS (damage per second) but having a high maximum damage can be desirable in PvP situations where high spike damage is difficult to defend against.

Actual damage will be a value randomly picked between the minimum value and the maximum value of the damage range. This applies to the physical damage range for physical attacks or the magical damage range for magical attacks. The only equipment that contributes a range of damage is the weapon which has a base range and equipment with the stats "+Maximum Physical Attack" or "+Maximum Magical Attack" which only add to the maximum of their respective ranges.

Base Damage

Base damage is the physical \ magical attack shown in your character info ingame. For physical attacks, the base damage is equal to the damage you deal with a normal attack of your weapon.

base damage = attack multiplier * weapon attack

Weapon Attack

Weapon attack in general is how much your weapon contributes to your damage. This is basically the sum of all the physical \ magical attack attribute on player's gear and level.

weapon attack = attack from weapon + attack from shards in weapon + attack from rings and other equipment + character level

Don't forget about the +attack or +max attack adds on the weapon.

Weapon attack can also be gained from attack charms. Ammo contributes to the weapon attack for ranged weapons.
Other than character level all other factors of weapon attack are found from equipment. Weapon attack can be increased by refining or sharding damage shard (garnet or sapphire) to weapons.

Attack Multiplier

The attack multiplier comes from how your stats, masteries, and buffs contribute to your base damage.

Elemental damage such as from buffed skill (Frostblade, Blazing Arrow, Poison Fang, Condensed Thorn... etc.) or elemental damage shard on weapon does not get multiplied by attack multiplier *please confirm*

Attacks Per Second

Attacks per second (APS) is a measure of your attack rate when using normal attacks and depends largely on your weapon and gear. In many ways it is easier to consider the attack interval instead which is the inverse of your attack rate.

APS = 1 / attack interval

attack interval = 1 / APS

Attack intervals are always multiples of 0.05 seconds as that is the smallest unit of time the game uses.

An assassin's dagger normally has a rate of 1.25 attacks/second, meaning that each attack is .8 seconds long, or that it has an interval of .8 seconds.

There are two ways that we can increase this attack rate: -interval gear, and skills to increase your attack rate by a percentage.

In the case of gear, once we have determined the attack interval, we simply subtract the gear value from it.

Going back to assassin's daggers, the TT80 Hook and Thorns have the interval -.05 stat on them, meaning that their interval is .75 instead of .8. This gives them an attack rate of:

1 / .75 = 1.33

The second way to increase your attack rate is through the use of skill such as Demon Spark or Heaven's Wrath. In this case, we need to multiply the interval we have by the new percentage of the attack rate:

"Product", meaning the all 1+amplifications in the parentheses multiplied together. For example, a 30% amplification from sage Amplify Damage when combined with a 20% amplification from Extreme Poison will give 56% total amplification since (1.3) * (1.2) = 1.56 (which is the product, in this case).

Comparison of sources of amplify damage:

20% more damage from Extreme Poison

100% more damage from Heaven's Flame

20% more damage from level 10 veno Amplify Damage

20% from level 10 magic masteries

Critical Hit

A crit is an attack that does more damage than a normal attack. This damage is given as the rage damage multiplier in your char sheet and is 200% for all classes but Assassins who have a skill to get 230% rage damage. Your chance to crit is given in your character sheet and come from equipment, crit buffs, the Rainbow Blessing (cleric-only genie skill) buff, and Dex.

Damage Reductions

PvP Damage Reduction

In PvP all damage is reduced by 75% (corresponding to a damage multiplier of 25%). This does not apply to some attacks from venomancer pets.

Terrain-Based Damage Reduction

In PWI combat can occur on land, in water, and in the air. If both the attacker and target are in the same terrain then the target will take full damage. If they are on different terrain then there may be a 50% damage reduction. This damage reduction applies to both melee and ranged attacks but does not apply to mobs, venomancer/mystic pets, or Damage Over Time (DOT) effects.

Target

Air

Land

Water

Attacker

Air

100%

50%

50%

Land

100%

100%

50%

Water

50%

50%

100%

Level Difference Damage Reduction

If the target is a higher level than the attacker then a level difference damage reduction may apply. This damage reduction is ignored by venomancer / mystic pets which makes those particularly effective fighting against ?-level mobs (which count as level 150).

Target Level minus Attacker Level

Damage Multiplier

< 3

100%

3 - 5

90%

6 - 8

80%

9 - 11

70%

12 - 15

60%

16 - 20

50%

> 20

25%

Skill-Based Damage Reduction

A number of skills provide the Bless buff and similar buffs which reduce damage. These skills do not apply to damage done from damage over time (DOT) effects.

Some examples of skill-based damage reduction:

Blue bubble (50% reduction)

Invoke (90% reduction)

Sage spark (25% reduction)

Wings of grace (30% reduction)

Guardian light (60% reduction)

Bramble hood (75% reduction)

Ranged Weapon Damage Reduction

This damage reduction in particular affects archers, but actually applies to any attacker using a bow. Ranged weapons have a 50% damage reduction if the target is closer than the minimum effective range of the weapon.

Weapon Type

Minimum Effective Range

Crossbow

5.5m

Bow

5m

Slingshot

4.5m

Most archer skills suffer from this range reduction. The ones that have no minimum effective range are Winged Pledge, Wingspan, and the metal-dealing skills.

High APS Damage Reduction

When the attack rate of your character is either 4.0 or 5.0 attacks per second, damage done by normal attacks is reduced by 5%. This damage reduction was added in the Descent expansion and does not otherwise show up in your character info window. There is also an unconfirmed 20% loss of accuracy with 4.0 and 5.0 attack rates.

Resistance

Physical Resistance is based on your Str, Vit, and equipment defense (the sum of the Physical Defense found on all of your equipment). Similarly Magical Resistances are based on your Mag, Vit, and equipment Magical Resistances. Magical Resistances should be calculated separately for each of the 5 magical elements, but most equipment has the same resistance across all the elements.

The above reduction percentages are shown in the character sheet when hovering over the stat. If equipment adds a physical damage reduction stat it does not contribute to this reduction%. This is a separate reduction that applies in a different step from the above.

Note that in-game statistics menu reductions are shown as truncated numbers (39.7% reduction will be shown as 39% in menu). To receive exact results, you shouldn't omit fractions.

Attack and Defense Levels

Attack and Defense Levels come from various skills, Jones' Blessing and other bless boxes, grade 12 gems, and powerful equipment. The damage depends on the attacker's Attack Level and the target's Defense Level. For PVE, all mobs have a base of 0 attack level and 0 defense level but these can be modified with buffs and debuffs. Before the Sirens of War expansion attack and defense levels did not apply to Damage Over Time (DOT) effects but now they do.

Damage results are rounded down. For example, a damage result of 367.9 becomes 367.

Slaying Levels and Warding Levels

Slaying and Warding Levels come from new gear found in the Descent expansion. They are similar to Attack Levels / Defense Levels but only apply to PvE damage dealt / received.

Slaying Levels are a PvE-only damage amplification that only applies to damage dealt to mobs. It applies to normal attacks, skills, and genie skills. At near 0 slaying level, every additional slaying level adds about 1% more damage but slaying levels suffer some from diminishing returns. At 60 slaying level (as found on G15 morai weapons) you only have +50% damage amplification.

Warding Levels are a PvE damage reduction that only applies to damage players take from mobs. Warding Levels are found mainly from on the new G12, G13, and G15 armor found in Morai. The effectiveness of warding level damage reduction depends on the level of the mob.

These are totally separate forms of amplification and reduction that multiply with all other forms of amplification and reduction.

For example if you get +40% damage from slaying level and +30% damage from attack level, in total you will have a combined effect of +82% damage since 1.4*1.3 = 1.82.

Spirit

Spirit is a new stat introduced in the New Horizons expansion. It is similar to both Attack Levels and Defense Levels but is more effective in PVP than in PVE. Spirit can be obtained from Soulprime/Lifeprime cards, Soulprime/Lifeprime Nuema levels, and from gaining Vitae from the new Primal dailies.

The evade equation is rounded up to the nearest 2 decimal places (remember 0.67 = 67%). Thus you can only get a 100% hit% if the target's evasion = 1.

Bramble Damage

The Physical Reflect buff ( ), better known as being "brambled", is normally endowed by the venomancer skill Bramble Guard. It may also be given by the genie skill Alpha Male, the demon version of the barbarian skill Roar, or some mobs will buff themselves with it.

Attacking a brambled target with a melee physical attack causes the attacker to take bramble damage. Bramble damage is a percentage of raw physical damage and can be thought of as a physical attack from the target to attacker.

To calculate bramble damage you start with the physical attack of the attacker before factoring in crits, attack levels, or any kind of damage reduction. For a simple unarmed punch, this attack is equal to the base damage in the character sheet.
Using just this damage, a new attack is generated from the target back at the attacker based as a percentage of that damage.

For instance a physical attack of 1000 (before crit or any kind of damage reduction) will be reflected back as 600 physical damage by level 10 Bramble Guard (60% reflect damage).

This attack is a physical attack which is treated as if it originated from the brambled target, thus increasing aggro. Like any attack from the brambled target, it uses the brambled target's Attack Level and is mitigated by the original attacker's Defense Level and physical defense using the above equations. This brambled attack has a chance to crit according to the brambled target's crit rate and not the original attacker's. The original attacker's Attack Level and chance to crit as well as the brambled target's Defense Level and physical defense has no effect on the reflected bramble damage.

Heals

In some ways heals can be thought of as an attack that does negative damage, but there are significant differences. Heals never appear in the damage log and never have a chance to critical hit. The amount of healing done does not depend at all on Attack Level, Defense Level, Defense, Resistance, Slaying Level, or Warding Level. Most healing skills found on caster classes depend only on base magic attack. This means that the best magic weapon to use for heals is one that gives high attack, like rank 8 recast. Physical classes tend to have healing skills that either heal a fixed amount or heal as a percentage of their maximum HP. The only kind of heal that you can directly see is the healing done by the Bloodpaint buff, which is a percentage of melee damage dealt.

Effective Health

The amount of damage you must deliver to kill something or that something needs to kill you, winds up being health divided by the damage delivered percentage. This simplifies to:

You should probably be thinking about what this number will be for you in various plausible situations when choosing between defense and health (for example, when comparing between two different shards that cost the same amount, or when choosing between two different belts).

To choose between Vit, citrine, and garnet shards you will have to make two calculations for every stat/shard combination: